Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/289

In that hour of supreme trial I thought I knew "better than the enemies of our sacred cause, the resources, the energies and the virtues of the imperilled nation. In the name of the United States, I called upon the Republican rulers and statesmen of the Continent for moral aid, and conjured them by all the force of common sympathy, common danger and common ambition to be faithful and persevering in their own Republics. The universal answer was equal to the expectation. The United States became for the first time in sincerity and earnestness, the friend and ally of every other Republican State in America, and all the Republican States became from that hour the friends and allies of the United States. This alliance commanded respect and confidence in unexpected quarters. Switzerland, Italy, Russia, North Germany, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Siam, and China became the friends and moral allies of the American Republics, and their triumph at last was complete. The United States were restored, and Slavery abolished there. St. Domingo was evacuated, Peru was left independent, and Mexico resumed her noble Republican autonomy. For the heroes who led Republican forces in this great contest, Scott, Grant, Sherman, McClellan, Farragut, and so many others in the United States; Saragoza, Diaz, Arteaga, Salazar, Escobedo and Corona in Mexico—for the statesmen who directed the councils of the nations who took part in it, Lincoln, Johnson, Stevens, Stanton, in the United States—Juarez, Lerdo, Iglesias and Romero in Mexico—Gortchacoff, Bright, Bismarck and Napoleon (Jerome) in Europe, I came to feel and acknowledge sentiments of gratitude, of respect and of affection, not inferior in force to those of fraternal confidence and affection.

This is the manner, Mr. Lerdo, by which you have won me to your side and secured my ardent wishes for your future prosperity and success as a man, a minister and a statesman. If I have not so expressed myself heretofore, since my arrival in Mexico, it was only because I was waiting for this most seasonable occasion.